


Broad-Shouldered Beasts

by orphan_account



Series: Hijacking the Soft Wars AU [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Brothers, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, No Beta We Die Like Clones, Protective Older Brothers, Soft Wars, fanception, fanfiction based on fanfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:14:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23932138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Bly finds out why Rex was abusing the chat, an additional scene to Project0506's 'Wholly Unprofessional'I'm hijacking the Soft Wars AU again...
Relationships: CC-1138 | Bacara/CT-7567 | Rex, CC-5052 | Bly & CT-7567 | Rex, CC-5052 | Bly/Aayla Secura
Series: Hijacking the Soft Wars AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1725256
Comments: 21
Kudos: 373
Collections: Open Source Soft Wars





	Broad-Shouldered Beasts

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Wholly Unprofessional](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23925154) by [Project0506](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Project0506/pseuds/Project0506). 



> Some people were missing Bly in my last addition to this AU…Projie’s most recent fic sparked this. I was writing it before I even realized what was happening. Freaking love these boys. 
> 
> _But when you feel the world  
>  wrapping 'round your neck  
> Feel my hand  
> wrapped in yours  
> And when you feel the world  
> wrapping 'round your neck  
> Don't succumb_
> 
> _Broad-Shouldered Beasts by Mumford and Sons_

“Gotten yourself into trouble again, Rex’ika?”

Rex’s head, along with about four other troopers and medics, all snapped toward the door where Bly was tucking his helmet under his arm. Kix snorted at the nickname but smothered it quickly at the glare the Captain cut at him out of the corner of his eye.

“I’ll just go check on Denal.” Kix muttered, nodding at the visiting Commander as he passed him on his way to Rex’s bed.

Rex pushed himself up until he was sitting upright. There was an impressive bruise across his right cheek, darkening the area just around his eye and a couple steri-strips holding the skin together over an ugly gash across his cheek.

“What are you doing here?” Rex’s tone wasn't exactly friendly. He was not in the mood for his _ori’vode_ today.

Bly tilted his head and smirked, amused at Rex's sour mood. “I told Ponds the 327th was running supplies out to your campaign and he made me promise to come check on you. Said you bumped your little poloycotton bucket filler.” Bly reached out to rub the top of Rex’s head but the Captain jerked away, only to flail blindly for purchase and grasp Bly’s forearm when the world tilted and nearly sent him toppling to the floor.

“I can see reports of your _minor_ head injury have been somewhat understated.” Bly commented dryly, pushing on Rex's shoulder until he was leaning back against his pillow.

Rex scowled and pulled his hand back.

“Alright, you checked. I’m fine. Goodbye Bly.”

Bly raised an eyebrow. “What did I ever do to you? Don’t snap at me just because Cody removed your love letter privileges.”

While his little brother wallowed in what appeared to be rather self-indulgent levels of self-pity, Bly made himself comfortable in a chair beside the Captain's bed.

“You still look like an angry baby loth cat when you pout.” 

“ _Ne'johaa_ , Bly.” Rex snapped, the venom in his tone catching Kix’s attention from three beds away.

Bly had become deathly still by the time Rex looked at him again, his eyes narrowed and serious, all hits of teasing gone. Slowly, he watched as Bly raised his hand to lay it on Rex’s shoulder, sliding around behind his head to grip his neck. Rex had time to move away, to tell him to stop. He didn't.

Rex was a little shit when Shebse adopted him and he made a sport out of getting on their nerves. He'd learned to recognize the signs of when he was getting too close to the line.

Wolffe would yell, Cody would scold, Ponds would give him the cold shoulder. But Bly? Bly would grab him by the neck, pull him close, and drop his voice so low Rex had to be silent and still to hear him.

“Rex, I know you’re upset. And you’re injured so you’re not thinking clearly, but I am not the enemy. If you have a problem, you talk to me about it. We’ll work it out.”

Rex allowed himself to take some comfort in Bly's steady presence. The irritation he'd felt had been misdirected, fanned by the flames of a concussion. He pressed back into the warmth of Bly’s hand, taking comfort, giving an apology. Bly kept his gaze but started to exert just the smallest pressure, massaging the knots of stress Rex kept in his neck and upper back.

“Cody shut me out.” He answered finally, voice quiet, just the slightest tinge of hurt beneath it. Not the voice of Captain Rex, Bly realized. This was the voice he used to hear whispered across the dark in their dorm on Kamino when the smallest Shebse had been woken by a nightmare.

Bly squeezed his neck again and dipped his chin. “Okay. Tell me why thats a problem.”

“The 91st are isolated. Behind enemy lines, they jam comms. The only connection they have to the rest of us are those Priority Alerts. Do you have any idea what that’s like?” Rex knew. He’d talked to Bacara about it. He’d seen the way the man would flinch before melting into Rex’s touch for the first time, having forgotten what it was like to have touch mean _pleasure_ and not _pain_. He'd watched Bacara’s eyes go distant and blank when he talked about _cold_ and _battle_ and _losing so many men_.

“They don’t even have a Jedi with them most of the time. It’s just them. On their own.” Rex dropped his eyes to his lap and Bly gave a warning squeeze, bringing his gaze back up immediately. “Bly if he has a moment to get a secure patch through to the current orders he can see if I’ve been on assignment, he can see the numbers of wounded and dead, but he can’t see names. He has no other way to know I’m alive and sometimes...sometimes that’s the only comfort he gets. You know what happens when you’re distracted in battle. I don’t want him to get hurt because of me.”

Rex took a deep breath and lifted his chin, squinting as the first dose of painkillers he’d been given started to wear off and his cheek and eye throbbed. “Tell me you wouldn’t do the same if you didn’t have the privilege of serving at Aayla’s side. That you wouldn’t do anything to make sure she knew you were safe because that was the only thing you could do to keep her safe too.”

Bly stared at him for several seconds. Rex sat back, dislodging Bly’s hand, and rested his head against his pillow, the thumping in his head ratcheting up just past a dull ache. He let his eyes rest for a few moments until movement in the chair next to him caught his attention again. He saw Bly typing something out on his comm.

“What are you doing?”

Bly didn’t respond, just reached out and grabbed Rex’s tablet off his pile of armor on the floor under the bed, handing it to Rex just as the message came through.

_PRIORITY ALERT_

_Bly: Rex is fine. He’s got a minor concussion, his medic is keeping him from screens until that clears up because of light sensitivity but he’ll be fine._

Before Rex could respond, four responses came through from brothers across the galaxy. Rex switched the pinging on his tablet to vibrate immediately, afraid of attracting Kix’s attention, and ignored the spike in his headache as he watched his brother’s responses start rolling in.

Bly didn’t respond. Rex watched, waited, for whatever it was Bly had planned.

After typing one last short reply, Bly sat back with a smirk that didn’t reach his eyes.

“That ought to get his attention.”

Rex looked back down and his eyebrows shot up at the sight of Bly’s formal, protocol perfect response in the chat.

Immediately the vibrating on Rex’s tablet ceased and he watched as the ‘…is typing’ scrolling across the bottom of the screen petered out entirely.

Yup, definitely got the Vod’alor’s attention.

_ PRIORITY RESPONSE _

_Cody: Bly what is going on._

Rex didn’t get to see the response because his tablet was suddenly snatched out of his hands and placed out of reach on the empty bunk opposite.

“I believe I said no screens Captain. It’s only a minor concussion but you’ll give yourself a full blown migraine if you’re not careful.” Kix fussed with Rex’s pillows and checked his vitals, pointedly ignoring the fact that Rex was staring at Bly and paying him absolutely no mind at all. “I don’t actually care if you want to give yourself a migraine, by the way. But I’m not letting you go back to your room unsupervised and I’m not going to listen to you whine for the rest of the night either.”

“What’d you say?”

Kix pulled out his pen light, glancing quickly at Bly who was typing on his comm, before gently grasping Rex's chin so he could check his pupil dilation. 

“I told him what you told me.”

“And what did he say?”

Bly glanced at his comm. “He’s asking for confirmation.”

Rex nodded taking the ice pack Kix dropped into his hand without comment and pressing it to his sore cheek.

He didn’t realize he’d closed his eyes again until they popped open at the sound of Bly’s Priority Chat pinging.

“What’d they say now?”

Bly’s frown was a mix of concern and fond exasperation. He raised his eyes briefly to Rex’s. “Neyo confirms.” He glanced back down at a few more pings. “Cody wants updates from all companies. Daily.” Bly’s smile widened at Rex’s shocked look. “They'll have that to look forward to, at least, if we can't bring them home yet.”

Rex took a deep breath, eyes just a little too shiny to be natural.

Mustv’e been the painkillers.

Bly, wanting to give his brother a moment to collect himself, got up and wandered over to pick up Rex’s tablet.

“You’re Priority Alert privileges have been reinstated.”

Rex’s laugh was quiet and rough. “I promise not to abuse the privilege.”

“You absolutely will.”

Rex’s smile was genuine and Bly couldn’t help but return it. Ponds wasn’t exactly wrong about their little brother being adorable, not that Bly had any intention of telling him that. 

“Thanks Bly. It was good to see you.”

“You too Rex’ika.”

This time when Bly reached out to scruff his hair, Rex didn’t pull away.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks as always to Project0506 for being so open to letting others play in her Soft Wars AU! Check it out if you haven't yet! It's deep and wide and can be a bit overwhelming, but I promise you won't regret it. It's the mother of all fix-its. SO SOFFFFFT.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Priority](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23948995) by [Project0506](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Project0506/pseuds/Project0506)




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